More than 5,000 medical cannabis licences given by States of Guernsey

More than 5,000 licences for medicinal cannabis have been handed out by the States of Guernsey in 18 months, new figures have revealed.

Doctors on the island can prescribe products privately which are manufactured to a pharmaceutical standard.

Since it was made legal in 2020, there have been 5,069 licences distributed.

The Cannabis Industry Council said Guernsey was "leading the way in treating with cannabis".

Professor Mike Barnes, consultant neurologist and president of the council, said the bureaucracy in the UK was "more difficult to navigate".

"I think Guernsey is, in many ways, leading the way across Europe in the way they are dealing with and treating with cannabis," he said.

One person who uses cannabis to treat pain in her joints said it "changed her life" and she could do her job "much better".

Lieneke Sprinks uses it to treat Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which can often cause overly flexible joints and stretchy, fragile skin.

She was diagnosed when she was 19 and said the pain relief she used to use left her feeling like she "wasn't involved in real life".

In the last few months she has been prescribed medicinal cannabis.

She said: "I can do my job much better, I don't get tired as quickly. I can focus on myself and my job and not just hear my pain in my head just constantly overwhelming me."

Since March 2021 about 4,500 licences have been granted to Bailiwick residents.

Since the start of 2022 there have been 658 licences granted, according to the figures from the States of Guernsey.

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